The original recording by Mason Williams was released in February 1968 from the album The Mason Williams Phonograph Record. In August 1968 it reached the top 5 in the American charts and went on to sell over a million copies and won three Grammy awards.
The song has appeared in many pop culture settings. Lisa Simpson played it in the 1993 Simpsons episode Last Exit to Springfield and Frasier Crane played it on his CD player while testing his new furniture in the 2000 episode The Great Crane Robbery Also, Mannheim Steamroller re-recorded the song, along with other compositions by Williams, in their album of the same name. On internet file sharing programs, the song is sometimes credited (incorrectly) to Eric Clapton or The Shadows. The version often credited to Clapton on various tabbing websites is actually performed by Mark Knopfler; this was recorded but never released on any of his albums.
The Story of Classical Gas by Mason Williams
I had just finished my first season as a writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy
Hour on CBS, and was taking the summer off to work on a couple of art projects;
a life-sized photographic poster of a Greyhound Bus, and the world's largest
Sunflower (see Art Projects by Mason Williams). I hadn't been playing the guitar
very much during the past few months, having had to concentrate on writing
comedy for the show. After a wild two week gig with Tom and Dick in Las Vegas
(... I don't think we slept at all.... I remember virtually living in my
sunglasses), I came back to L.A., slept for a couple of days, got up and spent
an entire weekend alone with the guitar. It felt so good to get back to my old
friend that I decided to compose something. I didn't really have any big plans
for it, other than maybe to have a piece to play at parties when they passed the
guitar around. I envisioned it as simply repertoire or "fuel" for the classical
guitar, so I called it Classical Gasoline.
During the second season of The Comedy Hour, which began in the fall of 1968, I
worked on the piece off and on for a couple of months in between writing comedy
bits. There was a lot going on in those days. As well as the show, I was also
writing my own songs, poems, and books.
The influences the Comedy Hour exerted on me were enormous. I was like a
chameleon, constantly changing with the ebb and flow of the cultural revolution.
The show featured a wide variety of musical guests, including many of the big
names of pop music and rock and roll, each with a unique artistic style and
creative philosophy. It was one hell of an education! In addition to being a
regular variety show, The Comedy Hour endeavored to provide a platform for the
artistic expressions of counterculture. They engaged in a censorship battle with
CBS and in doing so developed a reputation for being "controversial". As a
consequence, the show became so popular that America plugged into our weekly
battles with the network censors. One of the major battles we won early in the
game was the right to present new groups and their music on prime-time variety
TV. The network's position up until this time had been that music presented on
variety shows should be established Americana, pop hits, or songs from Broadway
shows.
Because the show had succeeded in creating a place for artists to present new
songs to a large audience before they might become hits, instead of after, the
show attracted the attention of some of the major record companies. Warner Bros.
Records told Tom Smothers that the wanted to add ten new artists to the label.
Since my music and ideas had been an integral part of the Comedy Hour's success,
Tom suggested, "Why not give Mason a shot." Warner Bros. agreed, so I became one
of the ten, along with Jimi Hendrix, Randy Newman, Van Dyke Parks and others.
So, in addition to its impact on me and my work, The Comedy Hour was also
directly responsible for my getting the chance to become a recording artist on
the Warner Bros. label.
I began to record The Mason Williams Phonograph Record (my first album for
Warner Bros.) that fall and Classical Gasoline was one of the tunes to be
included. On the parts for the session the music copyist inadvertently
abbreviated Gasoline to Gas and so that's how it actually got its title. It
truly wasn't until sometime later that I realized most people were thinking that
Gas meant to be hip, as in "Hey man, it's a gas!" The single was released from
the album in February of '68 and it hit the top of the charts in August. It won
three Grammy awards: two for me, Best Instrumental Composition, Best
Instrumental Performance; and one for Mike Post, Best Instrumental Arrangement.
It still receives a fair amount of air play and I am delighted that it has
become a utilitarian piece of music that people have embraced for use in their
own creative endeavors. It has been used as music for videos and films, routines
for dancers, ice skaters, gymnasts, body builders, etc. It was also used as the
music theme for local TV news shows and sports programs. It was also played by a
lot of school bands on football and basketball halftime shows.
